Two Twin Arrows
by Fuzzycat901
Summary: This was written for the Starvation monthly one shot challenge. Two arrows were handcrafted by an old man, both were identical, both took a different path...


_**This was written for the monthly Starvation one shot challenge. The prompt was "Arrows"**_

Two arrows were made out of the finest wood by the hands of an old man, and put into a tiny shop in District 2 for everyone to see. People marveled to the old man on how extraordinary the sleek arrows were and offered much money to buy them but the old man shook his head and simply said:

"They are my finest arrows; I'll sell them when the time is right."

Seven years passed and everyone quit asking about his arrows, everyone knew they were his prized possessions. One day a boy with tattered clothes and dirt on his face walked into the shop with nothing but a gleam in his eye.

"I would like to buy your finest arrows please." He said and smiled.

The old man looked curiously at this young boy. He looked to be about eighteen, old enough to know how to work a bow, but still young enough to screw it up. The old man took his arrows off display and held them out for the boy to look at.

"Do you know how to work a bow?" The old man asked.

The boy nodded. "I made one myself."

"That's the best kind," the old man laughed. "I'll tell you what, I'll sell you my finest arrows but you have to promise to take care of them.

"I promise," the boy said quickly. "I haven't any money though, just the clothes on my back and a bow made of wood."

"Take them, the time has come." The old man carefully placed the arrows in the hands of the boy and he took off without another word.

/

The boy's name was Jackson, and he wasn't all what he seemed. He lived in the woods of District 2 in a hollowed out tree and stole foods and other neat things that he came across. He had got those two arrows on a promise and not money, he couldn't believe it.

He ran through the trails with a skip in his step and jumped over logs and fallen trees. When he made it back to his hollowed out tree he grabbed his sloppily made bow and attached the first arrow he grabbed to the string.

He had already painted a target on a tree stump with red berries. He let go of the string and the arrow went whizzing past the tree stump, flying into the distance. The boy's heart sank as he watched one of his fantastic arrows disappear. He still had one left but decided to save the second one for the next day.

He got robbed of his belongings that night and his one remaining arrow was packed away with the thief.

/

The thief and his friends knew what they were doing. They never made a peep and they were as sly as a cat. They made sure their business was done quickly and they hardly ever talked about it afterwards.

They arrived at their meeting place which was the alley way behind the Justice Building. They emptied out their backpacks and began to divide their stuff between one another. The thief, whose name was Arnold, pulled out the arrow from his pack and held it up against the moon lit sky.

"Look what I have here!" He ran his finger over top of the arrow's smooth wood. One of his friends grabbed the arrow from him and put it in his pile.

"That's mine!" Arnold went to go grab it back but his friend had picked up the arrow and rammed it into Arnold's stomach. As the blood poured out of his body and onto the pavement, the boy who had stabbed him yanked the arrow out of his flesh and ran.

His legs pumped faster than ever and his heart felt as if it was about to explode. He threw the arrow in the river and watched it wash away.

/

"Daddy, look what I found!" A little girl with blonde pigtails trotted up to her father with an arrow in her hand.

Her father took it from her carefully and turned it over in his hands. "Where did you get this from Rose?" He asked his daughter.

"Over there in the bush!" Rose pointed to where she had gotten it.

"I see, let's go show mom." He took his daughter's hand and together they walked out of the forest and onto the busy streets of District 2. They walked past the food store and past the bakery, past the Justice Building, and past the weapons shop on the edge of town.

They came to the border that drew the line between District 2 and District 3. They went over without a problem and stepped onto the uneven ground of District 3. The textiles factories loomed above them and casted a huge shadow over the District.

Many men and woman trudged back to their homes with sunken faces after a hard day of work. Rose and her father turned down a paved road and came upon houses with iron gates. Out of ten only three of them were occupied. Of all places they lived in the Victor's village.

Rose and her dad pushed open the Iron Gate and she let go of his hand and took off at full speed towards the front door. Her mother opened it and held her arms out wide for Rose to jump into. Rose leapt through the air and landed safely in her mother's arms.

Rose was shaking with excitement and couldn't wait to tell her mother the good news. "Look what daddy and I found today!" She pointed at her father and he held up the wooden arrow.

She set Rose down on the step and told her to go inside. Rose did as she was told and ran into the house with her pigtails bouncing high into the air.

"Stewart! How could you?"

"Relax Ingrid, it's harmless."

"You try having that pierced through your skin and then we'll talk about that again."

And with that, she shut the door.

/

One arrow had led a path of destruction and the other arrow had led a path of peace. The first arrow to be shot had landed in the calm forest and wound up in the hands of a little girl while the other one had slain someone until their blood seeped on the ground.

The second one had found its way to the Capitol, where it was a weapon in the Hunger Games. It had killed a total of thirteen people and injured twenty six. The Game Maker announced that it was the sharpest arrow ever made and could cut through anything.

The Game Maker had everyone examining it to make a duplicate but no other arrow was as sharp or as fast. The second arrow had everyone crying in pain and shivering fear from the sight of it. It was a killer.

For ten years the first arrow was kept in a closet high out of everyone's reach. The little girl had forgotten about it and the mother couldn't bear the sight of it. The little girl who was now sixteen was a Victor herself from the deadly Hunger Games and had the scars to prove it.

She was searching for a pair of shoes one day in the overstuffed closet when she came across the old arrow she had found in the woods of District 2. She couldn't look at the beautifully hand crafted weapon without thinking of the one that sliced open her leg.

She put the arrow in a cardboard box and shipped it to her cousin in District 12. Her cousin was thirty six and had two little girls, one loved to play in the dirt and the other liked to do her hair and dress up.

He worked hard days in the mines but always came home smiling.

"Dad," his oldest, Katniss asked. "Can you teach me how to hunt?" She asked in her eleven year old voice.

He smiled. "Of course I will, let me go get my bow." He walked to the back door where his bow hung on a hanger. When he walked back over to where Katniss was, he saw her standing with a small package in her tiny hands.

"This came in the mail today, I wonder what it is!" She said, her big eyes sparkling.

They both unwrapped it carefully and found the arrow. Katniss gasped and her father placed it in her hands.

"This bow and this arrow, they're both yours." He said showing her how to sling the bow onto her back.

/

After that moment, Katniss felt whole and at peace with everything. The next year, all of that changed. Her father had died and her first Reaping's came shortly after. She took her hunting skills that her father had taught her and walked out into the forest.

She failed to kill a single animal. She cried herself to sleep that night knowing that her sister's stomach was growling and so was her own. She vowed to try again the next day.

/

"Ladies and gentlemen let the 74th annual Hunger Games begin!"

The words echoed in Katniss's ears from that point on. Her head wasn't as clear as she wanted it to be and her focus was certainly not on winning the games, but on losing the games. But right now her focus was on finding Rue.

"Katniss!" Rue screamed nearby and Katniss shot through the bushes and found the girl tangled in a net. Katniss fumbled with the entwined ropes until they were off the little girl. Rue embraced Katniss in a tight hug until, Katniss heard the sickening noise that made Rue's arms go loose.

She quickly strung an arrow to her bow and shot the boy from District 1 in the throat.

The second arrow had done its job again of killing an innocent human.

/

"My mom and dad won the 74th Hunger Games!" Tatum Mellark smiled proudly at her fellow school mates. They all whispered amongst themselves excitedly.

As the school day came to an end Tatum found herself kicking stones on her long walk home to the Victors Village. She came across an arrow, lying in the middle of the dirt path. She picked it up with curiosity and ran all the way home with it clutched in her hand.

"Mommy, mommy, look what I found!" She beamed with pride as Katniss took it in her hands.

"It's an arrow." Katniss mumbled, she had hoped never to touch one of these again.

"An arrow?" Tatum gasped.

"Yes an arrow. It looks just like the one my daddy gave me when I was a little girl." Katniss walked over to a cabinet and inserted a small silver key. From the cabinet she brought out another arrow that looked identical to the one that Tatum had found. Together, Katniss and her daughter placed them side by side and locked the door.

Nobody knows how the second arrow got to be on the dirt road of District 12. Perhaps it was done its deed as a savage killer and was placed there by the Game Maker? In the end, the arrows sat side by side in a cabinet all to themselves.


End file.
